


Once, Twice (Always)

by dietplainlite



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Reylo - Freeform, Smuggler Ben Solo, The Force Ships It, Tumblr: reylofanfictionanthology, bounty hunter rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-18 22:36:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13691262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dietplainlite/pseuds/dietplainlite
Summary: Jedi dropout Ben Solo gets roped into a smuggling mission for the Resistance. He's surprised at how easy it is to pull off, but his quarry may be even more valuable to bounty hunter and fellow dropout Rey.





	Once, Twice (Always)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pythia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pythia/gifts).



There’s an old Corellian saying, “Give the wine to the winemaker.”  Essentially, don’t give someone a task they’re not trained to do.

Whoever came up with that must not have lived in a time of war, because sometimes, you gotta give the wine to the whiskey distiller.  Which is how Ben Solo, Jedi dropout, family disappointment, got roped into stealing kyber crystals for the Resistance.

Well, he doesn’t like to think of it as _stealing_ so much as _diverting resources_. He may be a smuggler, but he’s not a thief.

His mother reminded him that this mission was exactly the kind of thing his father would have done, and quoted an old Alderaanian saying, “The fruit of the tree falls to its root.”

His uncle said something cryptic about winding paths leading to the same point, as if doing one run for the Resistance would lead to Ben resuming his Jedi training.

“Don’t hold your breath,” he muttered.  That one was pure Han Solo.

The irony was not lost on him.

The job came off more smoothly than expected (almost too smoothly) and he stopped on Ord Mantell to refuel and wait for his drop coordinates with the crystals secure in a crate of uncut wind-crystals. Not the best disguise, but they blend in well enough to pass a perfunctory inspection.

After two days, he gets the coordinates, and as he finishes his pre-flight check list, anxious to get the job over with, he loses himself in thoughts of his next run. He walks back to the cockpit, so engrossed in his datapad that he doesn’t notice there’s someone else on board until she freezes him in place in the doorway.

If he hadn’t been so distracted, he would have sensed her the moment she boarded, or possibly when she came planet side.

She starts toward him, and though it’s a massive strain without the use of his hands, he manages to lock her in place mid step

 “You are wasted as a smuggler,” she grits out.

“Funny, my mother would agree. So would my uncle.”

They push against each other, straining, neither able to throw the other off.

“Truce?” she says, finally.

“Sure. You first.”

“Not a chance.”

“You started this.”

“Kriff,” she says, letting him go and collapsing into the pilot’s chair.

He releases his grip on her and slumps against the door frame, a dull pounding beginning in his temples. He needs to do something about it soon, before it escalates and puts him out of commission for at least half a day. But first, he needs to deal with Rey. They skirt around the same circles, but he hasn’t seen her in three years. There had always been an unspoken agreement between them, regarding the bounties on his head, but perhaps the price had increased, or her sentiment had decreased.

He sits in the co pilot seat. “What are you doing here?”

“You have something I need.”

“What could that possibly be?”

“Your manifest says you’re carrying farm implements bound for Lothal, but you’ve got an entire crate of wind crystals for the same client. Seems odd.”

“I don’t ask questions. Maybe he wants a chandelier in his farmhouse. It’s a big farm.”

“Cut the crap, Solo. I can hear it. And I want it.”

“It?”

“I know there are kyber crystals on board, and one of them is mine.”

“Yours? Now, let’s just say you’re right about my cargo. Even so, I’d find it a bit odd that you’re claiming something as yours that was _hypothetically_ taken out of a mine on Mygeeto six days ago.”

“Don’t play dumb. It doesn’t suit you. You know how this works.” 

Beads of sweat have popped up on her upper lip, and she’s trembling like a spice addict in need of a hit.

He sighs and raises his hands. “Fine. But what’s a bounty hunter need with a lightsaber?”

“Same thing a smuggler needs with one. Now I’m going to have it, one way or another. I wanted to extend the courtesy of asking, as an old friend, but you can’t stop me.”

“I just did.”

“And look what it cost you. You’ve already waited too long to take your injection. You’ll have a stroke if you try to do that again.”

It’s always been like this between them. The first time they met, she kicked him in the shin. Granted, she had been seven years old, but he wouldn’t put it past her to do the same thing if he stood in her way.

“You can have it,” he says. “But you’re paying for it.”

“That’s not the Jedi way.”

“I don’t see any Jedi, do you?”

On the way to the hold, they stop in the galley, so he can give himself the injection to stave off his headache. She hadn’t been quite correct; he’s got a bit of time, barely. Rey flinches when he administers the serum into his wrist.

“It’s not painful,” he says.

“It looks like it should be, though.”

He rolls his neck and moves his shoulders up and down to loosen them as the ache in his head subsides. “Come on, let’s do this so I can get off this planet.”

The closer they get to the hold, the more Rey’s energy intensifies. It’s laser focused ahead, like she’s already in the room, already holding the crystal in her hand. He remembers that feeling, though his crystal had led him through an impossibly small crack in a freezing cave on Ilum. Rey hadn’t gotten that far in her training before leaving Luke’s temple, but the Force, if one of these crystals is truly calling to Rey, doesn't seem to care.

When he opens the hold, she pushes past him and places her hand on the crate. The lock clicks and the lid cracks open. A faint glow emanates from the box.  She lifts the lid and holds her hand out.  The crystals—wind and kyber—are individually wrapped in soft fabric. They shake, and the air is filled with a faint tinkling sound, as the crystals part, making way for one bundle to fly into Rey’s hand.

Trembling, she unwraps it, the glow illuminating her face, so bright that Ben turns his face from it. When the glow subsides, Rey stands holding a crystal the cool green of a Jade rose.

Serenity has never been a concept Ben has associated with Rey. She’s always sparked like a live wire. But as closes her hand around the crystal and closes her eyes, breathing deeply, she is tranquil, satisfied. He notes how her long lashes fan out over her cheeks, but can’t help but notice, also, the dark circles underneath.  She sways against him and he catches her before she crashes into his chest.

“Easy, killer,” he says. “When’s the last time you slept?”

She doesn’t answer, and her body goes completely slack. As her knees buckle, Ben scoops her up and carries her to the crew quarters, depositing her on one of the bunks. When shaking her fails to rouse her, he pats her on the cheek, calling her name, but her eyes remain shut, her breathing steady and calm.

This has happened to him before, when he’s used the Force to the extent of his abilities. He’d once been out for two days, which was preferable to the headaches. How long has she been tracking him?

The kyber crystal is still wrapped tightly in her hand. She stirs when he removes it but doesn’t wake. He slides it into the breast pocket of her vest and pulls the blanket over her.

“I wish I knew where your ship is,” he says. He considers searching her mind for the location, but the idea repulses him. He needs to leave, however, and he can’t just dump her somewhere.

Her bag is still in the cockpit, and searching it is far less invasive than searching her mind, but before he can find any clues, the thud of an explosion rocks the hangar.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

* * *

 

 

When Rey wakes, one hand goes for her blaster, and the other searches for her crystal. Her hip is bare, but the crystal is on her, resting above her heart.

“What the hell?” she says, looking around the quarters of the Falcon. They’re familiar to her, but she shouldn’t be here.

Her confusion only increases when she reaches the cockpit and discovers they’re travelling at light speed.

“Are you getting into human trafficking now or what?” she asks.

“Things got a little hot on Ord Mantell,” Ben replies, not looking up from his data pad.

“How long was I out?”

“Twelve hours or so.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’re going to Coruscant. My destination is classified.”

“Coruscant?”

“Beautiful planet, but a little crowded. I can drop you at Dorin if you’d prefer.”

“No, thank you,” she says, slumping into the copilot seat.

He looks up at her, and she’d rather he didn’t. It’s too easy to get lost in those eyes. “How long have you been tracking me?”

“I didn’t even know I was tracking you, at first. I was going about my business and then I was…compelled. It was honestly painful to ignore it, or even stop to sleep and eat. Kriff, I’m so mad about my ship. I don’t even know if getting this thing was worth losing it.”

“Maybe it’ll still be where you left it when you make it back.”

“I doubt it. Whatever trouble you got in, I’m sure it followed me. Can I have my blaster back, by the way?”

“If you promise you won’t try to kill me and steal my ship.”

“This hunk of junk?”

“You love it.”

He’s right. She loves the Millennium Falcon. It was the ship that got her off  Jakku after Han recognized she might be Force sensitive and persuaded Unkar Plutt to let her leave with him. She sometimes wonders if Han hadn’t been a little Force sensitive himself, since she didn’t see any credits change hands, or witness any threats, and those were the only two forms of persuasion Plutt understood.

“I won’t steal your ship.”

He looks at her, eyebrow raised.

“Or try to kill you.”

He reaches into his jacket and pulls out her blaster. It’s the one Han gave her, when she left the temple and came to him looking for a job. Ben had been gone for a few years by then. Returning the blaster to its holster restores a little bit of balance, but she’s still on edge. She burned through a lot of credits chasing Ben Solo across the galaxy, and without a ship, it will be difficult to earn them back.

“I can help you find another ship,” he says.

“Hey—”

“I didn’t read your mind. It’s obvious what you’re most concerned about now that you’ve got your quarry.”

“I’m pretty short on cash.”

“Don’t worry. This guy owes me a favor.”

“How sweet! Now I’ll owe you.”

“You already do," he says, indicating the crystal in her hand. “I just need you off my ship and on your way.”

Her stomach growls and clenches like it’s trying to fold in on itself, so she leaves the cockpit to scrounge around in the galley, as well as get away from his scrutiny. The way he looks at her brings up things she’d rather forget.

The galley is well stocked, and as she makes tea, she waffles about whether she should ask him if he wants anything. It’s only polite, since she’s eating his food, but preparing food for him is too normal, too…domestic, even if it’s something crew mates do for each other all the time. She settles on bringing him a mug of caf.

“Thank you,” he says.

“Do you want anything to eat?”

“I’m fine.”

Thank the stars. She goes back into the galley and wolfs down a packet of Elbina pepper crisps and a can of Takhal nuts. She makes it halfway through a jifcake before a wave of drowsiness overcomes her. Eating too much, too quickly when she's running on empty often has a soporific effect, but that rarely prevents her from doing it. Looking on the bright side, at least if she’s asleep, she won’t have to make awkward chit chat with Ben Solo. She retreats to crew quarters without a word, sheds her boots, jacket and vest, tucks her blaster under her pillow, and is asleep within minutes of tucking herself in.

She awakens to the sound of soft snoring from the other bunk and can make out his vague outline in the glow of the running lights.

And there it is again, without warning, a tugging in her soul, the same feeling that had led her on this chase, toward her crystal. But she has her crystal. What on earth is the Force compelling her to do now? Ben stirs in his sleep, moving to lie on his back, one leg hanging over the side.

“Not a chance,” she whispers, but the feeling only grows, until she stands up and walks over to him. It doesn’t quite subside, but it becomes more manageable, and she shakes her head in frustration. They’ve tried this before.  Well, not exactly tried. She had blamed their desperate coupling on grief, when they were thrown together after Han’s funeral. They lost themselves in a haze of lust for days after, only for her to sneak away in the night while he slept.

Today is the first time she’s seen him since.

“Ben,” she whispers, touching his chest.  He jerks awake, sitting up and closing his hand around her wrist.”

“Rey, what are you—”

“I don’t know,” she says, and leans down to kiss him. At first, he returns it, his lips softening under hers, his hand drifting to her hip, but when she deepens it, tracing his lips with her tongue, he pushes her away.

“Don’t--what the fuck are you doing?”

Shame washes over her in hot waves, her face burning, her hands tingling. “I don’t know. I just…I’m so sorry.”

“For just now, or before.”

She can’t see his face clearly, but she knows the look that goes with that tone of voice. He’s not angry, he’s afraid.

“For all of it,” she says. “I’m sorry. I was afraid. It was too much. I’ll go now. I’ll sit in the cockpit.”

She turns to leave but he grabs her wrist again. “Stay,” he says.  “Please.”

She takes a deep breath and looks at him, his face still shadowed. She takes another and steps closer, to stand between his legs.

“Are you sure?”

He raises his hand to her cheek.  “No.”

It’s different from the first time. They know each other’s bodies and desires, as though the intervening years were only a moment. They greet new scars with kisses and old ones with caresses, her urgency to begin tempered by the desire to never let it end. She’s never forgotten how soft his skin is, how thick and silky his hair. How has she survived for so long without his mouth all over her body, leaving a trail of heat in his wake, marking her as his own.

When he finally enters her, there’s a pulse in the Force and a moment of peace so sublime she nearly weeps with it. He stops, eyes wide as he stares down at her.

“What is this?”

“I don’t know,” she whispers. “Just please, don’t stop."

They don’t stop again until they’ve wrung every bit of pleasure from each other, and they lay, sated and limp on a blanket on the floor of the hold. He pulls another blanket over them as they cool down and pulls her tight against his side, her head on his chest as they drift between sleep and wakefulness.

“At least I know you’ll be here when I wake up,” he says.

“That was one of the worst things I’ve ever done.”

“I doubt that, considering your profession.”

She raises her head to look at him. “It was, and I’m sorry. I’m not sorry I left. I needed to, then. I just should have told you I was going. Should have told you why.”

“Why did you?”

“Like I said, it was too much. It’s hard for me, to let people care about me, and I’d never done anything like that, and all I could think about was how it was inevitably going to end, and I’d lose you forever.”

“How would leaving like that prevent you from losing me?”

“I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. But like I said, it wasn’t the leaving, it was how I did it. I needed to grow up a little.” She rests her head on his chest again, her ear against his heart.

“And now?” His heart rate increases, and his arms tighten around her.

“I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not going to run again, even when I can.”

 “Are you sure?”

 “I’m as sure as when I knew I wasn’t cut out to be a Jedi.”

“That’ll work for now.”

Rey sits up and looks down at him, this man who’s been her mentor, her friend, briefly her lover, currently her lover. Remembers the tall, goofy looking boy whose face she’d liked so much she’d kicked him when the first time she saw him.

“I don’t ever want to hurt you again.”

“You will, you know. Over and over.”

She nods, tears falling, and he sits up.

“Rey, you can’t be afraid of hurting, you just have to make sure it’s worth the hurt, okay?”

“Okay.”

When he kisses her, she believes it. The mechanics are a problem waiting at the other end of this hyperspace lane. For now, they have all they need.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time participating in an exchange, and it was such an inspiring experience. This is also my first time working with this AU. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
